Neighbors fed up with construction workers parking

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YAKIMA, Wash. -- Signs are up and the tow trucks moved in on a clogged neighborhood. Yakima is going after illegal parking around the Eisenhower High School construction site. Neighbors were fed up with drivers who blocked their driveways and their mail delivery.

The peace on South 44th Avenue was disrupted when it became ground zero for a major construction project. Crews are hard at work on the new Eisenhower High School. Neighbors expected the dust and noise, but not the dirt covering the road and the large rocks in the streets.

That's just the beginning. Construction workers showing up to the job site were parking where they saw fit; blocking trash cans and mailboxes, causing disruptions in city services. Some neighbors complained they've been trapped in their own driveways.

“You have to have a dust abatement program on a construction site through the clean air authority,” said Yakima Code Enforcement Manager Joe Caruso. “You can't have track-out. These are all minimum requirements that are through the code."

Yakima said it's gotten complaints about code violations at the work site for months. The city tells KIMA it's tried to work with Graham Construction but nothing changed. The city is now getting serious. Now you must have a permit to park on the west side of the street. Signs went up at the beginning of the week notifying drivers of the new policy. Neighbors are the ones with parking permits, visitors and workers will have to park elsewhere.

The signs didn't do much good until a tow truck rolled up. From now on, if they don't move them the city will.

To get all sides, we called Graham Construction several times, but the company did not comment. Yakima plans to meet with the company on Wednesday as well as administrators from the Yakima School District. If Graham doesn’t stop the code violations the Eisenhower project could get delayed.